Ever since the University of Buea came under fire because of a sex scandal that is hurting the institution’s reputation, the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ngomo Horace Manga, has been tight-lipped despite attempts by the Cameroon Concord News Group to obtain his reaction to the mess that might see him out of that institution.

His indifference to the allegations has caused many people in the English-speaking community to think that he might be complicit in the commission of those sex crimes or he could as well be guilty of the same crime. What is Professor Ngomo Horace Manga hiding? Is he trying to protect his accomplices or his protégés? 

However, some people hold that the vice chancellor may just be overwhelmed. The Augean Stable is messy. He does not know where to start. When you have people like Prof. Agborbechem and Prof. Ernest Molua to investigate, know that you have a handful. They have had their fair share of the free sex for a very long time in the university and their DNA is all over the hotels in Buea. 

For Agborbechem, his crimes are too many. He has been all over the country, and he has been good at sowing his wild oats. Even if you are given the Federal Reserve (American Central Bank) to investigate the learned professor, you will still run out of financially resources. His field of operation is large, and the damage is massive. It is even alleged that even in Nigeria where he studied, he was advised never to return because of his unacceptable sexual escapades. 

Speaking to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Bureau Chief in London, a colleague of Prof. Agborbechem in Fontem, Lebialem Division, was quick to point out that he had never met anybody with such unusually high libido. The professor’s former colleague had little kind words for a man who has projected himself in very bad light because of his out-of-control libido.

“Agborbechem is a polished gentleman when women are not involved. Once he sees a beautiful woman, his brain takes French leave of him. He was very energic when we were in Fontem. The female students in that school should regret having known him. Anything in skirt was good enough for Agborbechem. Make no mistake, he is a very bright person, but when you give him a little alcohol and you throw women in the mix, Agborbechem loses his mind. It is unfortunate that such a learned person could be without self-control,” the professor’s former colleague regretted.

“Many people in Fontem thought he had lost his mind. If he is not mentally messed up, then he has been cursed. How can a man love sex to such ridiculous extents? When he looks at a woman, it is as he should just take her to his bedroom. We used to see him in a strange way, and we thought he had something that was really bothering him,” his former colleague said.

Meanwhile in Buea, many people are still looking forward to a thorough investigation into this sex scandal. Prof. Agborbechem and Prof. Molua have set brand new records when it comes to their sex trade. It is being alleged that sometimes they even tell the girls they want to sleep with to go and rent hotel rooms and only advise them of the transaction for them to come over and accomplish their mission. They not even want to spend a dime in the entire process. This is meanness in its superlative degree. 

University of Buea lecturers are really staging a show. Instead of imparting knowledge to those students, they are spending their entire time on women. Some students even argue that some of their lecturers have lost their intellectual edge because they have been discharging their intellectualism into women’s thighs. Rather than spend time conducting research, they spend useful time conducting non-intellectual research in women’s thighs. They love playing the beast with two backs as if that is part of their benefits package. 

The University of Buea is an Augean Stable that needs to be cleansed. But it cannot be cleansed by those who are responsible for the mess. Some of the lecturers need to be fired if the mess must be retired. It is time to take the bull by the horn and the vice chancellor must act swiftly and decisively if he really wants to save the university’s reputation or whatever is left of it. 

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

When the University of Buea was created in 1992 by a presidential decree, the country’s English-speaking minority saw only the good side of things. With their usual rose-colored spectacles, English-speaking Cameroonians saw only the bright side and nobody ever thought their beloved university would one day become a place where sex and marks trafficking would take place in plain sight.

But once the university’s doors were opened in 1993, the lecturers, indeed, those who are supposed to guarantee that the sanity and sanctity of the university are intact started demonstrating their ugly side.  Those who are supposed to be the custodians of the citadel of learning are clearly failing their students and the entire country’s English-speaking community. The shepherds are all yielding to the temptations of the flesh and the “place to be” has become anything but the ideal place of learning. 

The lecturers have transformed the girls into their sex slaves. Sex has been weaponized to dominate the young and vulnerable girls who should be empowered so that they can face the future with confidence and dignity. Almost all University of Buea male staff are involved in the sex scandal. They grant marks to the students and receive free sex in exchange. Many of the students graduate without the requisite knowledge and skills that can make them job-ready.

Many Buea University students and graduates are desperate and for different reasons. The students are desperate because their own lecturers have morphed into a “living terror”. The fear of dealing with a lecherous lecturer has left many students with tons of butterflies in their stomachs. For the graduates, they hold their degrees, but many of those degrees are not even worth the paper on which they have been printed. They are devoid of the knowledge that is supposed to guide them in life. They are bereft of the skills they should have acquired while in the university. They sold sex and got marks but cannot sell the same product to get the job of their dream. Their own lecturers have not only ruined their self-esteem, they have also ruined their chances in life. 

The disgraced Prof. Agborbechem and Prof. Ernest Molua are simply the tip of a massive iceberg that might drown the entire university when it melts. The Cameroon Concord News Group has been calling the office of the Vice Chancellor of the University to get his opinion on this issue, but nobody is picking up the calls. Some of the numbers on the university’s letter head simply do not work and nobody has bothered to return our calls. Could the mess flowing all over the university be taking place with the blessing of those who are supposed to check it? Some of the numbers we have used to call the vice-chancellor’s office are: +237233322760, +2372333322134 and 237233322690.

This matter will not be pushed under the rug. The University of Buea cannot be a place where young girls get destroyed by their own lecturers. The Cameroon Concord News Group’s Permanent Correspondent in Buea has been talking with some university students and the outcome of that discussion is a clear indictment of the institution’s lecturers. 

Prof. Agborbechem is a champion in this regard and his sins go beyond sex. According to a young student who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, Agborbechem needs to be fired from that institution. He is a terror that needs to be checked and he should leave with all his accomplices. They are many and if they don’t get checked, they will pull down the entire university. Their usually high and out-of-control libido is a reputational risk to a university that is supposed to be a beacon of hope to the country’s English-speaking minority.

According to a source in the university, “Agborbechem sleeps with female post-graduate students and makes promises to facilitate the defense of their theses. He particularly made such a promise to one post-graduate female student, but when her thesis was taken to the jury, it had so many errors. He had not told the student about those errors. Out of anger, the student promised to expose him for sleeping with her and deceiving her. Agborbechem had to negotiate hard and long for his misconduct and corruption not to be exposed,” the young lady told the Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent.

“As if enough was not enough, he also scheduled a PhD defense when he was not supposed to. He even asks his students to give him money for their defense to take place.  For male students, he asks for CFAF 300,000 for them to be scheduled for defense and for the female students who are beautiful, he requests for sex. Those who are not appealing to him must pay the sum of CFAF 200,000,” the student said. 

For some time now, the learned but crooked professor has been avoiding motels and hotels for fear that they could be bugged. He has been in this trade for a long time, and he knows the tricks of the trade. His office is now very busy. He is avoiding the watchful eyes of the authorities and those who know him. He has therefore transformed his office into a comfortable motel where he humiliates his victims. He lacks the moral stuff that makes a university don. The university must take appropriate measures to check this satyr who is ruining many lives.

While it is being alleged that the University of Buea is secretly conducting its investigations, the Cameroon Concord News Group is also pleased to inform the public that it has hired some undercover agents to carry out an in-depth investigation into a scandal that is slinging mud at the university’s reputation. The outcome of the Cameroon Concord News Group’s investigation will be published piecemeal. 

The Cameroon Concord News Group has nothing against Prof. Agborbechem and Prof. Molua. Its objective is to help the beleaguered university clean up its act. Degrees cannot be obtained on the basis of sex and money. A university is a citadel of learning and the University of Buea was created for that purpose and not for sex.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report

The sex scandal in the University of Buea will never be over until the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea, Prof. Ngomo Horace Manga, orders a thorough investigation into the nasty sex scandal that is splashing very dark mud on this once prestigious citadel of learning. 

The University of Buea was designed to be a beacon of hope for the country’s English-speaking minority, but the university has gradually been transformed into a brothel, with lecherous lecturers preying on girls like predatory animals do on their preys.  

The good news is that Prof. Agborbechem Peter wants to talk, but there is a lot of fear within the University of Buea right now. Agborbechem is staring down the barrel of defeat and he knows he will surely be going down, but he does not want to go down alone, and all his accomplices or members of the sex ring are losing sleep over this. Members of the sex ring know that when he starts talking, he will be singing like a canary. Ordinarily, he talks like a magpie and now that he is under enormous pressure, he will surely be singing just to safe his skin. 

The University of Buea is sick. It is now like a poultry being supervised by foxes and hyenas. There is a lot of impunity playing out in that university and many victims of the sex abuse are taking their pain in stride. They have been abused and the university has no mechanism for these students to lodge their complaints. The university lacks a facility that can conveniently protect whistleblowers, making it challenging for those who know a lot about the mess that is giving the university a bad name to come out of the closet. 

There is an omerta (code of silence) in the university and the victims strongly hold that silence in this context is golden. They are bearing their pain quietly. The abuse of girls in the University of Buea did not start today. Under Prof. Dorothy Lymunga Njeuma’s watchful eyes, the premier vice chancellor of the University of Buea, sex criminals like Prof. Victor Julius Ngoh who is now retired and has moved to another university and Prof. Albert Azeye who plied their trade with impunity were a constant source of fear for young female students.

A former student of the University of Buea who had a very close and intimate relationship with Prof. Ngoh and now lives in the United States told the Cameroon Concord News Group that the man’s calm demeanor belies his true nature.

“Prof. Victor Ngoh who came from the University of Yaoundé could be considered as a wild wind which transported the moral decadence in the University of Yaoundé to the University of Buea. He is an iron fist in a velvet glove. He is very intimidating and when he needs a girl, he imposes his will on the girl. I hear he has moved to a private university after retiring from the University of Buea where he is plying his demeaning trade. His current university should know that he is a bad seed and will be a millstone around the neck of many young females,” Ngoh’s former student said.

“The new university must keep a close eye on Victor Ngoh. He is a dangerous element who should have never been within a university. I am not saying this to discredit him. He was simply an ill wind that did not blow any good to any girl. He adored sex and he was good at it. He could have sex all night and, in the morning, he would be looking as pale as Geoffrey Chaucer’s Squire in the Canterbury tales,” the frustrated former student said. 

While those who have retired will go scot free, University of Buea authorities must seek to cleanse the Augean Stable that West Cameroon’s first Anglo-Saxon university has become. Prof. Agborbechem and Prof. Ernest Molua are simply the tip of a massive iceberg that is threatening the university’s reputation. Their unusually high and uncontrollable libido has transformed them into satyrs and the girls they are supposed to empower academically have become their sex slaves. 

There is a lot of rot going on in the University of Buea. University authorities must think up new ways and means of controlling the male lecturers who are making a mockery of moral decency. The University of Buea was supposed to be a “place to be”, but it has turned out to be a place to be for free casual sex. 

According to a source in the university, it is being rumored that some of the university’s lecturers insist on having sex with their victims without protection. A source in a clinic in Buea has hinted that HIV/AIDS prevalence among University of Buea students is astronomically high. 

Meanwhile, the Cameroon Concord News Group’s permanent correspondent in Buea has reported that there is a lot of work to be done in the University of Buea if mentalities must change. Many lecturers, both part time and full time, unfortunately hold that free sex within the university is part of their benefits package. This mentality is not good for an institution of learning that is seeking to be among the best on the continent.  

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai and Stephen Mukake

SOBA UK renewed the mandate of its executive bureau today amid preparations for their 2021 Annual Residential Convention.

A member of the newly elected SOBA UK executive team said following the election:

“We are excited to continue with our roles. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with all SOBANS including the Cameroonian community in the UK particularly those who put extraordinary passion and effort into defending our academic and social heritage. We believe that by working together we can continue to transform SOBA UK into a more organised, powerful  force. It is an honour to lead SOBA UK.”

SOBA UK 2021 Executive Elections – Official Confirmation of the Results

Dear Sobans,

On behalf of the patrons, I am pleased to confirm the final results of the members who have been

successfully elected to the executive of SOBA UK for the period from 1st September 2021 to 31st

August 2023;

1) PRESIDENT – FRANKLIN EGBE

2) VICE PRESIDENT – ATEM AKOH-ARREY

3) SECRETARY GENERAL – ASMARA EBAN

4) DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL – RALPH MBUA

5) EXECUTIVE TREASURER – BENEDICT TCHANTCHEU

6) FINANCIAL SECRETARY – KOBI AKONG

7) PUBLICITY OFFICER – FRITZ ESAMBI

The detailed results and statistics have been sent to all members who voted by Big Pulse for

Verification and the above results have been confirmed by patrons and elections observers on 26th

August, 2021.

Please join me in wishing these elected members every success in their roles as they seek to move

our association forward.

My gratitude goes to all voters who participated in the elections, 103 members registered to vote out

of 123 registered members (including 8 patrons who do not register to vote). I also want to thank the

Patrons for successfully managing the elections process and collaborating effectively with the

elections system provider, BigPulse.

We are pleased to have used elections observers and greatly appreciate their time and contribution

to the process. We look forward to any feedback that they may have on the process, fairness and

accessibility of voting to members.

Yours faithfully,

Soban Joseph Foncha

Lead Patron (On behalf of all Patrons)

When changes were made a few days ago at University of Buea in the Southwest region of Cameroon, many people in the two English-speaking regions wondered why some of the university dons had been replaced.

But before the dust triggered by those changes, especially the replacement of the University of Buea former registrar, Dr. Ernest Molua, and the former Head of Department of Education and Curriculum Studies, Prof. Peter Agborbechem, could settle, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea, Prof. Ngomo Horrace Manga, published a press release announcing that there were investigations into allegations that university lecturers were engaging in inappropriate conduct by requesting money from the students in order to give them marks.

But the vice chancellor’s press release did not tell the whole story. There is more to the vice chancellor’s communiqué than meets the eyes. Parts of the story have been withheld by university authorities in order not to bring shame to a university designed to be the best in the country and to serve as a beacon of hope for the country’s English-speaking minority. 

According to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s source at the University of Buea which elected anonymity, Peter Agborbechem and Ernest Molua had carefully transformed the University of Buea into their harem where they were satisfying their unusually high and uncontrollable libido with impunity. Both men have been using their offices as hotel rooms where they were having sex as if they were satyrs. It was as if they had established their own Hollywood in Buea where they were shooting pornographic movies. 

According to some of their victims, both men seem to be possessed by some demons. Sex seems to be like food to them. It appears to be part of their benefits package. But Sources at the registrar’s office have informed the Cameroon Concord News Group that sex is not part of the university’s benefits package and if Ernest Molua and Peter Agborbechem thought they were entitled to free sex, then they were mistaken. Their long-running sex-party and impunity have been ended by a vice chancellor who is more concerned about the image of the institution he runs. 

“The University’s vice chancellor has decided to shut down the harem and Ernest Molua and Peter Agborbechem can take their madness to somewhere else. They have been demoted and if they are not happy, they can resign and leave the university. These men have given our university a very bad name. How can educated men transform sex into food?” our source quipped.

“All the motels and small hotels in Buea know both men. They have been exploiting these female students for a long time. These young Cameroonians have been entrusted to the University for It to empower them through sound education, but Agborbechem and Molua have been having a never-ending sex party. This sex drama in the University of Buea is like telling a fox to take care of a poultry. These men do not deserve to be within a university environment. They have hurt so many girls and many people in Buea are only too happy that they have been caught but will they walk away from their bad and old ways when they are still teaching in the same university?” the source asked.

“I don’t know what will follow next, but we understand that there is a disciplinary process that is currently underway to determine the extent to which both men have damaged the university’s reputation. These men must be sick. They should be made to see a psycho-therapist. I have always thought that it is impossible to fall in love with any and every woman but Agborbechem and Molua have proven that it is possible. They sleep with any and everything. This has been going on for years and because the past vice chancellors of the university protected these men, they have continued to act with impunity,” the source said.

“But Karma has started cutting them down to normal human proportions. Some of the girls are willing to testify if the university decides to carry out a full investigation. Some say they were humiliated by Molua and Agborbechem and that they want to take revenge on these predators who are preying on young girls in the university. The girls, who have asked to be anonymous for now, have clearly said that they would provide a graphic description of what both men do when female students go to their offices for academic assistance,” the source concluded.  

The Cameroon Concord News Group has dispatched a correspondent to the University of Buea where details regarding this misconduct must be uncovered. The Group will be requesting for an opportunity to interview the university’s vice chancellor who many say is currently doing a good job by introducing major reforms that are very likely to transform the university into a true citadel of knowledge.  

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Stephen Mukake in Buea 

Cameroonian Universities under the Biya Francophone regime are rife with corruption and several instances of moral turpitude. The University of Buea (UB) is not immune from this vice; a recent press release linked to the revaluation of answer sheets attests.

Under the ruling CPDM crime syndicate, lecturers who took bribes and corrected the marks of dozens of students including those who had sex with under-aged female students have often escaped with a lenient punishment or go scot-free making the mark tampering scheme to flourish in the University of Buea.

Prof Ngomo Horrace Manga, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea is leading the investigation this time around pertaining to the final-semester examination involving money being transferred via MTN services to UB lecturers.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the first step in the process is for the lecturers to humiliate the students who do not clear the exam. After that the lecturers comforts them and says he would be able to help. He eventually takes a bribe and changes the marks.

The Vice Chancellor’s communiqué made public evidence collected from several students when the irregularity was brought to light.

It is estimated that some one hundred students benefitted from the cash-for-marks scam scheme.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Mukake Stephen in Buea

Today, SOBA UK announced the 2021 Annual Residential Convention, officially known as the SOBA UK ANNUAL RESIDENTIAL CONVENTION LAUNCH.

Currently in development, the 2021 SOBA UK ANNUAL RESIDENTIAL CONVENTION LAUNCH opens in a new tab and is being directed to “Appreciating Community Spirit”.

Poised to be the first major African event in the UK after the Covid-19 pandemic, SOBANS have developed the Annual Residential Convention Launch to address systemic diversity and equity issues deep within the Sasse Old Boys.

Below is the official statement from the SOBA UK leadership

We trust that you and your family are keeping well.

We are delighted to announce the 2021 SOBA UK Annual Residential Convention to be held at The Hilton at St George’s Park, Burton Upon Trent, from 15th to 17th October 2021. St George’s Park is the Home of the England National football teams and is a magnificent venue for Sobans, their families, and guests to have a great get away and the ultimate event experience over two days.

In 2018, SOBA UK selected St George’s Park and delivered one of its most successful conventions. The feedback from our guests were excellent and we hope to surpass that experience again this year. Some facts about The Hilton at St George’s Park are in the attached 3-paged flyer accompanying this launch

Covid-19 measures

In July, the UK Government lifted all lockdown restrictions relating to social gatherings. This has allowed SOBA UK and the Hilton to proceed with this convention. However, SOBA UK will seek to provide reasonable safety measures and encourages all guests to take the necessary Covid-19 measures, in line with government advice.

We encourage our guests to take their double vaccine jabs and/or take a Covid test prior to the event. The capacity at the event will be limited to 250 places to allow for sufficient distancing and guests will have access to hand sanitisers and temperature checks at entry. In addition, the gala event will start at 4.30pm and finish at 2.30am, to adjust to the new normal.

Convention theme

The theme of this year’s Convention is “Appreciating Community Spirit”, reflecting on the difficult year we have had as a community due to the Covid-19 pandemic, those who have suffered illness or lost loved ones, and on how we have missed the company of each other. This theme also extends to our communities in Cameroon who have benefitted from our collective kindness here in the UK from past fundraising initiatives. Our fundraising focus this year is equipping the Sasse College library. We will be looking to assist where possible and we look forward to your generous support. We will supplement our usual fundraising event at the gala with a GoFundMe campaign, which will be launched in the coming week.

We have allowed free time on the Saturday 16th October up to 4pm for Soban parents to spend quality time with their families at the venue. This has been made possible by moving our Annual General Assembly Meeting to take place virtually and a week prior to the convention.

We will make available the services of a children entertainer on the day on the Saturday 16th.

We will also be making available a nanny service (for a fee and subject to demand) on the Saturday night whilst parents attend the convention ball at the Sir Bobby Robson Ballroom. Please confirm upon booking your ticket the number of children in your party.

Given the early gala start time, we recognise the need to provide dinner for our children and we will be providing each family with snacks. Please confirm upon booking your ticket if you will require the snack and the number of children in your party.

We have allowed free time on the Saturday 16th October up to 4pm for Soban parents to spend quality time with their families at the venue. This has been made possible by moving our Annual General Assembly Meeting to take place virtually and a week prior to the convention.

We will make available the services of a children entertainer on the day on the Saturday 16th.

We will also be making available a nanny service (for a fee and subject to demand) on the Saturday night

whilst parents attend the convention ball at the Sir Bobby Robson Ballroom. Please confirm upon booking your ticket the number of children in your party.

Given the early gala start time, we recognise the need to provide dinner for our children and we will be providing each family with snacks. Please confirm upon booking your ticket if you will require the snack and the number of children in your party.

Ticket price

SOBA UK always seeks to deliver great value events at competitive prices to our guests. However, following the year and half long pandemic shutdowns hotel venues have significantly increased their prices but we have modestly reflected these increased costs in our ticket prices. Our price will be £100 for a standard ticket with an early bird discount of £50 to a table of 10 guests which ends on 25th September. Please contact our sales agents for more details – contact and payment details are on the attached flyer.

Hotel rooms

There are limited rooms available, and rooms can only be purchase via the link provided below. The hotel is already sold out for Saturday 16th October, except for the rooms allocated to our guests. Please book your room as soon as possible. We expect the demand for hotel rooms to be very high for those seeking to stay at the venue. CLICK HERE TO OPEN HOTEL BOOKING LINK

On behalf of all Sobans in the UK, we say a big thank you in advance for your continued support of SOBA UK.

We encourage you to buy your tickets as soon as possible and begin your planning for the convention.

We look forward to welcoming you and your families at The Hilton at St George’s Park.

Kind regards

Franklin Egbe

President, SOBA UK On behalf of the SOBA UK Event Management team

A Senegalese student was detained Monday after he disguised himself as a woman in a bid to sit for national examinations on behalf of his girlfriend.

The student, enrolled in a university in the north of the country, and his girlfriend “were placed under arrest on Monday evening.

They will be tried on Thursday with his girlfriend for “exam fraud”, their lawyer said Tuesday.

“The couple is to be “tried on (Thursday) August 5 for exam fraud and complicity in fraud”, by the court of Diourbel,” the prosecutor said.

The student, whose age was not disclosed, had moved to Diourbel to take the exams for his girlfriend, a student in a high school in this city, according to the prosecution.

Photos posted on social networks depicted him wearing a red dress with black patterns, wearing a veil with the same colors and a black shawl, to deceive the invigilators.

He was surprised on Saturday, the third day of the exam, during the English test, by the supervisors, who according to the press, noticed that something was wrong with his attire.

They then reported him to the police who arrested him and his girlfriend who was waiting for him in a hostel in the city, according to the same source.

Source: Africa News

Schoolchildren are deliberately attacked, abducted and killed in Cameroon’s increasingly violent Anglophone crisis. An independent investigation has verified 13 recent attacks using satellite images, finding both government soldiers and armed separatist groups responsible. Catholic and Presbyterian-run institutions are among the schools targeted by all sides in the conflict. It is thought that two hundred schools have been attacked or set on fire since 2018.

In 2016, the Francophone-dominated government of President Paul Biya tried to impose a French curriculum on English-speaking schools, while demanding that the French legal system replaced English Common Law in courts in the Anglophone regions of North West and South West.

In response, armed groups demanding an independent Anglophone nation called Ambazonia called for a boycott of schools and a weekly “ghost towns” that shuttered the economy. A warning from the Ambazonian Restoration Forces appeared on Facebook in August 2019, telling parents not to send their children to school, saying, “You will have only yourselves to blame.”

After the attacks began, parents withdrew their children, forcing education in the Anglophone regions to cease. The UN estimates that one million youngsters (out of a total Anglophone population of six million adults and children) have been out of school for almost four years. The Cameroon ministry of basic and secondary education recently announced that 70,000 children have now returned and 400 schools have reopened. However, it is understood that those schools are in towns and cities, whereas institutions in more remote areas are reluctant to reopen for fear of attack.

The Bellingcat report draws on years of research by the Cameroon Anglophone Database of Atrocities, working with the Berkeley Human Rights Center. Many of the attacks have taken place in the diocese of Bamenda which is twinned with the UK diocese of Portsmouth. St Augustine’s Secondary College in Kumbo was attacked in May 2020; in October 2020, men on motorcycles armed with machetes and guns killed seven children and wounded a dozen at Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in Kumba; and in January 2021, the Presbyterian secondary school in Mankon, Bamenda was torched.

A Presbyteran school in Nkwen near Bamenda was subject to two attacks in 2018 during which almost 100 teachers and children were abducted, interrogated and held for ransom. They were eventually released unharmed. In November 2020, the students and teachers at Kulu memorial College were forced to strip and then run into the bush before the building was burned. In the North West region, the wing of a Catholic school in Kambe was burned in February 2021.

Bellingcat is an independent international collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists. It’s report, “How Schoolchildren became Pawns in Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis,” is based on painstaking work by volunteers at the Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Database of Atrocities and the Berkeley Human Rights Center, videos posted on social media by civilians, soldiers and armed groups, and opensource material and satellite imagery.

The Bellingcat report quotes teachers who “walk a thin line” between the armed separatists enforcing the boycott and the government security services which are trying to end the ban. In addition, teachers say they are targeted by criminal gangs extorting money. The Voice of America quotes Nji Samuel Kale of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, saying, “The community and the Christians help us run the schools. The teachers, we must attest, they have been enduring a lot. They have shown a lot of resilience.”

Most of the separatist leaders live overseas, meaning that their children are not missing school. They refuse to back down unless they are seen to win concessions from the government. Meanwhile the Swiss Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue continues to offer to host inclusive peace talks. Both the government and armed separatist groups have declined to participate.

Before he died earlier this year, Cardinal Christian Tumi warned that violently enforcing the schools boycott was turning the Anglophone population against the separatists. He mentioned a girl whose hand was amputated by separatists as she went to sit her exams. Cardinal Tumi was kidnapped and interrogated by an armed Anglophone group in November 2020. He was later released unharmed but died in April 2021, age 90.

Historically, the Catholic Church, as well as Anglican and Presbyterian missions, have run schools and clinics across Africa in the absence of comprehensive, good quality education and health provision by governments. In addition, faith-based entities are estimated to provide between 30% and 70% of health services. There are no reliable figures for how many schools are provided by faith groups on the continent.

Source: Independent Catholic News

Prior to October 2016, not many Southern Cameroonians thought they would ever be internally displaced in a country they felt was theirs nor did they ever think they would become helpless refugees in neighboring Nigeria.

But in October 2016, their lives suddenly changed, unfortunately for the worse. The country’s English-speaking minority had had enough of government instituted marginalization and discrimination, with lawyers and teachers downing their tools and taking to the streets to make their grievances known to a government that had decided to be deaf and blind to the sorry plight of Southern Cameroonians.

The Yaoundé government has never been reputed for dialoguing and it views dialogue as a sign of weakness and it was in no mood in 2016 to change its old bad ways.

This is a government that has a huge tool box but in that massive box, there is only one old rusty tool – violence – which has not been effective in recent times.

Times have changed but the mindset of those ruling the country seems to be frozen in time. Of course, if you have a hammer, everything you see will surely be misconstrued as a nail that needs to be hit hard and that was where the government made its mistake that has triggered a bloody insurgency that has caught the attention of the international community, with many Western governments calling out on the corrupt Yaoundé government.

The government’s reaction to the demands of the country’s English-speaking minority has created a pretty mess that has left thousands of Southern Cameroonians both at home and out of the country in a really unfortunate situation.

While those who are internally displaced are living rough in towns and cities in East Cameroon, those who skipped the border into Nigeria to escape the government’s Kafkaesque brutality are gradually losing hope and many are calling on kind-hearted individuals to stretch their hand of charity to them.

Among those who escaped to Nigeria are desperate women whose children are not having access to Nigeria’s educational system.

Though education at the primary school level is free, there is no guarantee that children from poor backgrounds can have the education they need to cut out a place for themselves under the sun.

If many Nigerian children cannot access education due to poverty, how will refugee children whose parents escaped their native Southern Cameroons, living everything behind, have access to such education?

Education is simply not the availability of brick and mortar. Buildings alone will never guarantee a child unfettered access to quality education. Food, transportation and books will surely guarantee a child a bright future, especially in an environment wherein the government makes the education of everybody living within that geopolitical entity a huge and significant necessity.

But this is not the case of Southern Cameroonian children who are seeking refuge in neighboring Nigeria. The schools are there but Southern Cameroonian children are unfortunately at home because their parents cannot afford textbooks and other school materials that they need to be effective in school.

At the secondary school level, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) subsidies are helping, but they do not go far enough. They do not cover many needs expressed by these refugee children and this is really retarding their progress. Their main concern is only to acquire education that will make them useful citizens of the world but education does not seem to be within their reach.

 But the agony is more painful when you consider that there are young graduates among the refugees who are unfortunately and unhappily watching unemployment robbing them of their happiness and youthfulness.

In search of a reliable anchor, they have been bouncing in and out of the settlements where they have been caged in Nigeria in search of hope and happiness.

They are without jobs and it is almost impossible for them to learn a trade. A hungry man is an angry man and these young men bear their anger on their faces. They are frustrated and disappointed by leaders who have placed their ego above their citizens’ interest.

Their country of origin – Cameroon – has rejected them and despite calls by the international community for the Yaoundé government to embrace dialogue and negotiations which will enable refugees to return to their homeland, the Biya government insists that only violence can bring this conflict to an end.

These young men are caught between a rock and a hard place. Their country does not think of their future and their host country clearly lacks the means and resources that can enable them to change their ugly and unfortunate fate.

Many of them want to further their education, but they lack the resources that can make their dreams come true.

This unfortunate situation has been compounded by the lack of scholarships and good Samaritans who can help them go back to school are few and far between.

 To many of these desperate young men, their future is bleak and this uncertainty might push many into crime or push them over the border to Cameroon where their last option will be to bear arms in order to eke out a living.

 While Nigeria and the international community are doing their best, the Yaoundé government must step in to help these youths who may become a millstone around everybody’s neck if they are not made to see hope in the future and the beauty in life.

By Ngalle Lyonga in Nigeria reporting for the Cameroon Concord News Group